George Carr Frison
Encyclopedia
George Carr Frison is an internationally-recognized archaeologist and recipient of many prestigious awards including: American Archaeology Lifetime Achievement Award, Paleoarchaeologist of the Century Award, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
. He was Wyoming’s first State Archaeologist, and was a founder of the University of Wyoming
Anthropology Department.
in 1901. By the 1920s, the ranch was a viable cattle operation with the three sons of Jake and Margaret obtaining their own homesteads of 640 acres (2.6 km²) each (Frison 2004).
George Frison was born in Worland, Wyoming on Nov. 11. 1924 (Thomson Gale 2007). Frison’s father was killed in an accident in 1924 before George Frison was born. Frison’s mother left when George was three, and his paternal grandparents in Wyoming raised him (Frison 2004). Frison took to ranching as a young man and helped his grandparents run the family ranch (Frison 2004).
Frison was intrigued by fossil
dinosaur
and mammoth
bones he found as a youngster in Wyoming, along with a variety of archaeological features such as chipped and ground stone tools, rock shelters, rock art
, and scaffold burials
(Vittitow 2006). Many researchers, such as geologist
Harold Cook, paleontologist Glenn Jepsen, and anthropologist Waldo Wedel were investigating the areas near the Frison ranch for various research projects (Frison 2004). Frison was intrigued by Paleontologist Barnum Brown
, of the American Museum of Natural History
, who excavated dinosaur beds close to the Frison ranch in 1934. Frison brought several cigar boxes of fossils to him to identify. Barnum was the researcher who identified the bison bones at the Folsom
site in New Mexico
, so he discussed the Folsom complex with a young George Frison, who had never heard of Folsom before (Frison 2004). These experiences were helping to shape Frison’s interest in and knowledge of both fossils and ancient American cultures (Vittitow 2006).
George Frison was an accomplished hunter and learned about hunting and animal behavior from his grandfather (Frison 2004). Through experience and family ethics, Frison as a hunter was able to adopt a philosophy of conservation
that worked for both the hunter and the hunted, and the common environment that both had to live in. Frison later believed that his philosophy must also have been the philosophy of early hunters (Frison 2004).
When he was 11 years old he had his first, and most unforgettable, incident with a bison
bull in a state park near Thermopolis, about 50 miles (80.5 km) from his home ranch (Frison 2004). Ten loose bison wandered from the park, and Frison was able to secure permission to assist local cowhands to escort the bison back to the park. A young bison bull that created too much confusion among the other bison was left behind. Frison found the bison bull grazing a few days later and decided to outrun the bull on horseback. After both Frison and the bison cleared two fences, the bull stopped at the third fence, turned 180 degrees and decided to charge. Frison soon learned how an awkward and docile bison could soon be a danger, as both Frison and his horse
toppled to the ground when the bull passed between the horse’s legs. However, all three managed to sustain no injury (Frison 2004).
After graduation from high school in 1942, Frison enrolled in the University of Wyoming
. His education was cut short when World War II
began and he decided to enlist in the United States Navy
(Frison 2004). He served in the amphibious forces of the South Pacific
during World War II, and received an honorable discharge in 1946 to return to Ten Sleep to work on the family ranch. He felt with the thought that the ranch “was the only place on earth…I really wanted to get back to it and it needed somebody to really do some work on the place and hold it together. At that point, I didn’t have any great desire to go back to school (Vittitow 2006).” At this time he also began work as a hunting guide, and married June Granville (Vittitow 2006).
Frison joined the Wyoming Archaeological Society and spent over 20 years working as an avocational archaeologist (Frison 2004). In 1952 George discovered a hidden cave full of atlatl
and dart
fragments, which were used by ancient American hunters as spear throwers, and took them to local archaeologist Dr. William Mulloy
. George learned how to make the darts and atlatls himself and later, in 1965, described and published work on the cave now known as Springer Creek (Frison 2004).
In 1956, George and June Frison adopted a daughter, Carol Frison Placek, who was born in 1952 (Beaver 2006). George continued to work as an avocational archaeologist until 1962 when the Frison family ranch and hunting and guiding business ended (Frison 2004).
While attending a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
in Denver in 1961, Frison learned that in order to succeed with an academic career in archaeology, he must have a formal university education (Frison 2004). Frison sought advice from Professor William Mulloy at the University of Wyoming regarding future research and educational possibilities, and in 1962 he decided to enroll at the University of Wyoming, at age 37, to finish his undergraduate work (Frison 2004).
Education=
In 1964 George Frison received a Bachelor of Science
degree with honors in anthropology from the University of Wyoming (Vittitow 2006). Frison proceeded to graduate school at the University of Michigan
with a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
, under James B. Griffin and Arthur Jelinek (Beaver 2006). Frison soon learned that the current literature on human hunters and hunting lacked credibility, and rarely took into account the hunted animal’s behavior, and often portrayed the hunter using unrealistic and illogical forms of hunting methodology (Frison 2004).
In 1965 George Frison received a Master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan, and was accepted into the University’s PhD program. In 1967, he received his Doctorate
degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan (Frison 2004).
, and the former Soviet Union (Frison 2004).
In 1976, Frison’s research on chipped-stone tools gave rise to the expression "the Frison Effect," which described how sharpening the edges of stone tools changes their shape and their use (Frison 2004). The end product may look nothing like the original tool. This has often led to debate because archaeologists rely on tool shapes to understand different cultures (Vittitow 2006).
Frison traveled to Africa in the 1980s to observe African elephants in their natural habitats and to gain information for proposing strategies of procurement for African elephants, that could be applied to mammoth hunters (Frison 2004). Frison became aware that prehistoric hunters had to become experts in mammoth behavior in order to survive (Vittitow 2006). Frison strongly advocated realistic experimentation with ancient tools (Frison 2004), so he experimented in Zimbabwe
, with modern-made Clovis points on dead and dying elephants, that were culled to get rid of excess numbers. He found that the Clovis tools were not only adequate, but very successful in penetrating the hide and ribcage of an African elephant, and quite possibly a mammoth as well (Frison 2004). He published the results in 1989. Frison also traveled to the former Soviet Union in 1989, after the Cold War
had ended, for research on mammoths, and mammoth sites (Vittitow 2006).
It has been a popular notion that early American hunters killed off the large game, such as mammoths, that inhabited North America in the Late Pleistocene
(Alroy 2001, Grayson 1977). However, Frison saw tribal cultures as having numerous rituals and restrictions against excess hunting and excess production. Frison hypothesized that there would be no incentive to kill more animals that one would need, and that the real cause of the late Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction was climate
, not humans (Vittitow 2006).
Frison believes that the earliest New World
human group that was making stone weaponry capable of killing mammoths, and successful mammoth procurement, was the Clovis culture, and that no earlier cultural group in North America possessed the tools needed to produce lethal wounds on mammoths, extinct species of bison, and other large animals, or to create a viable subsistence strategy based on large animal hunting and procurement
(Frison 2004).
Frison also believes that the modern counterparts of extinct North American species such as horses, elephants, and camels, are potential and plausible subjects of study and speculation for scientists, and that studies such as the Zimbabwe Clovis experiment on elephants should continue, being necessary part of gaining understanding of behavioral patterns, as well as procurement strategies of past cultures (Frison 2004).
Selected Works=
External links=
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. He was Wyoming’s first State Archaeologist, and was a founder of the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
Anthropology Department.
Early life
George Frison’s grandparents, Jake and Margaret Frison, homesteaded to Leadville Colorado in 1890 with the dream of starting a cattle ranch. Unsatisfied by the limitations of their ranch property, they decided to try their ranching luck in the town of Ten Sleep in Northern WyomingWyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
in 1901. By the 1920s, the ranch was a viable cattle operation with the three sons of Jake and Margaret obtaining their own homesteads of 640 acres (2.6 km²) each (Frison 2004).
George Frison was born in Worland, Wyoming on Nov. 11. 1924 (Thomson Gale 2007). Frison’s father was killed in an accident in 1924 before George Frison was born. Frison’s mother left when George was three, and his paternal grandparents in Wyoming raised him (Frison 2004). Frison took to ranching as a young man and helped his grandparents run the family ranch (Frison 2004).
Frison was intrigued by fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
and mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
bones he found as a youngster in Wyoming, along with a variety of archaeological features such as chipped and ground stone tools, rock shelters, rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
, and scaffold burials
Burial tree
A burial tree or burial scaffold is a tree or simple structure used for supporting corpses or coffins. They were once common among the Balinese, the Naga people, certain Australian Aborigines, and some North American Indian groups....
(Vittitow 2006). Many researchers, such as geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
Harold Cook, paleontologist Glenn Jepsen, and anthropologist Waldo Wedel were investigating the areas near the Frison ranch for various research projects (Frison 2004). Frison was intrigued by Paleontologist Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown , a paleontologist born in Carbondale, Kansas, and named after the circus showman P.T. Barnum, discovered the second fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century.Sponsored...
, of the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, who excavated dinosaur beds close to the Frison ranch in 1934. Frison brought several cigar boxes of fossils to him to identify. Barnum was the researcher who identified the bison bones at the Folsom
Folsom, New Mexico
Folsom is a village in Union County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 75 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Frances Folsom, the fiancee of President Grover Cleveland.-Geography:Folsom is located at ....
site in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, so he discussed the Folsom complex with a young George Frison, who had never heard of Folsom before (Frison 2004). These experiences were helping to shape Frison’s interest in and knowledge of both fossils and ancient American cultures (Vittitow 2006).
George Frison was an accomplished hunter and learned about hunting and animal behavior from his grandfather (Frison 2004). Through experience and family ethics, Frison as a hunter was able to adopt a philosophy of conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
that worked for both the hunter and the hunted, and the common environment that both had to live in. Frison later believed that his philosophy must also have been the philosophy of early hunters (Frison 2004).
When he was 11 years old he had his first, and most unforgettable, incident with a bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
bull in a state park near Thermopolis, about 50 miles (80.5 km) from his home ranch (Frison 2004). Ten loose bison wandered from the park, and Frison was able to secure permission to assist local cowhands to escort the bison back to the park. A young bison bull that created too much confusion among the other bison was left behind. Frison found the bison bull grazing a few days later and decided to outrun the bull on horseback. After both Frison and the bison cleared two fences, the bull stopped at the third fence, turned 180 degrees and decided to charge. Frison soon learned how an awkward and docile bison could soon be a danger, as both Frison and his horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
toppled to the ground when the bull passed between the horse’s legs. However, all three managed to sustain no injury (Frison 2004).
After graduation from high school in 1942, Frison enrolled in the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
. His education was cut short when World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began and he decided to enlist in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
(Frison 2004). He served in the amphibious forces of the South Pacific
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
during World War II, and received an honorable discharge in 1946 to return to Ten Sleep to work on the family ranch. He felt with the thought that the ranch “was the only place on earth…I really wanted to get back to it and it needed somebody to really do some work on the place and hold it together. At that point, I didn’t have any great desire to go back to school (Vittitow 2006).” At this time he also began work as a hunting guide, and married June Granville (Vittitow 2006).
Frison joined the Wyoming Archaeological Society and spent over 20 years working as an avocational archaeologist (Frison 2004). In 1952 George discovered a hidden cave full of atlatl
Atlatl
An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing.It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur at the end that supports and propels the butt of the dart. The atlatl is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the cup...
and dart
Dart (missile)
Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. They can be distinguished from javelins by fletching and a shaft that is shorter and/or more flexible, and from arrows by the fact that they are not of the right length to use with a normal...
fragments, which were used by ancient American hunters as spear throwers, and took them to local archaeologist Dr. William Mulloy
William Mulloy
William Thomas Mulloy, Jr. was an American anthropologist. While his early research established him as a formidable scholar and skillful fieldwork supervisor in the province of North American Plains archaeology, he is best known for his studies of Polynesian prehistory, especially his...
. George learned how to make the darts and atlatls himself and later, in 1965, described and published work on the cave now known as Springer Creek (Frison 2004).
In 1956, George and June Frison adopted a daughter, Carol Frison Placek, who was born in 1952 (Beaver 2006). George continued to work as an avocational archaeologist until 1962 when the Frison family ranch and hunting and guiding business ended (Frison 2004).
While attending a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
in Denver in 1961, Frison learned that in order to succeed with an academic career in archaeology, he must have a formal university education (Frison 2004). Frison sought advice from Professor William Mulloy at the University of Wyoming regarding future research and educational possibilities, and in 1962 he decided to enroll at the University of Wyoming, at age 37, to finish his undergraduate work (Frison 2004).
Education=
In 1964 George Frison received a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree with honors in anthropology from the University of Wyoming (Vittitow 2006). Frison proceeded to graduate school at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
with a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is a private non-profit foundation based in Princeton, New Jersey. It administers programs that support leadership development and build organizational capacity in education. Its current signature program is the...
, under James B. Griffin and Arthur Jelinek (Beaver 2006). Frison soon learned that the current literature on human hunters and hunting lacked credibility, and rarely took into account the hunted animal’s behavior, and often portrayed the hunter using unrealistic and illogical forms of hunting methodology (Frison 2004).
In 1965 George Frison received a Master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan, and was accepted into the University’s PhD program. In 1967, he received his Doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan (Frison 2004).
Time line of accomplishments
- 1967: Frison was appointed head of the newly formed Anthropology Department at the University of Wyoming. He builds the University of Wyoming’s Anthropology Department from a two faculty member undergraduate program in 1968 to a highly regarded PhD program (Vittitow 2006).
- 1968: Appointed the first Wyoming State Archaeologist (Beaver 2006).
- 1972: Frison was elected President of the board of the Plains Anthropological Society for one year (Beaver 2006).
- 1995: Retires from the University of Wyoming Anthropology Department (Beaver 2006).
- 1997: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, while the University of Wyoming’s Board of Trustees established the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, a research facility dedicated to the study of North AmericanNorth AmericanNorth American generally refers to an entity, people, group, or attribute of North America, especially of the United States and Canada together.-Culture:*North American English, a collective term used to describe American English and Canadian English...
, High PlainsHigh Plains (United States)The High Plains are a subregion of the Great Plains mostly in the Western United States, but also partly in the Midwest states of Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota, generally encompassing the western part of the Great Plains before the region reaches the Rocky Mountains...
, and Rocky Mountain archaeology (Vittitow 2006). - 1999: Received the Paleoarchaeologist of the Century award at the "Clovis and Beyond" conference (Beaver 2006).
- 2005: Frison was awarded the Society for American Archaeology Lifetime Achievement Award (Vittitow 2006).
- 2007: Frison is currently Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming.
Theory and practice
George Frison’s main focus of research has been the Paleoindian mammoth hunters of prehistoric North America beginning over 11,500 years ago (Vittitow 2006). He has studied mammoth hunting culture, mainly from the tools and bones left behind, across the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and the former Soviet Union (Frison 2004).
In 1976, Frison’s research on chipped-stone tools gave rise to the expression "the Frison Effect," which described how sharpening the edges of stone tools changes their shape and their use (Frison 2004). The end product may look nothing like the original tool. This has often led to debate because archaeologists rely on tool shapes to understand different cultures (Vittitow 2006).
Frison traveled to Africa in the 1980s to observe African elephants in their natural habitats and to gain information for proposing strategies of procurement for African elephants, that could be applied to mammoth hunters (Frison 2004). Frison became aware that prehistoric hunters had to become experts in mammoth behavior in order to survive (Vittitow 2006). Frison strongly advocated realistic experimentation with ancient tools (Frison 2004), so he experimented in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, with modern-made Clovis points on dead and dying elephants, that were culled to get rid of excess numbers. He found that the Clovis tools were not only adequate, but very successful in penetrating the hide and ribcage of an African elephant, and quite possibly a mammoth as well (Frison 2004). He published the results in 1989. Frison also traveled to the former Soviet Union in 1989, after the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
had ended, for research on mammoths, and mammoth sites (Vittitow 2006).
It has been a popular notion that early American hunters killed off the large game, such as mammoths, that inhabited North America in the Late Pleistocene
Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is a stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the base of the Eemian interglacial phase before the final glacial episode of the Pleistocene 126,000 ± 5,000 years ago. The end of the stage is defined exactly at 10,000 Carbon-14 years BP...
(Alroy 2001, Grayson 1977). However, Frison saw tribal cultures as having numerous rituals and restrictions against excess hunting and excess production. Frison hypothesized that there would be no incentive to kill more animals that one would need, and that the real cause of the late Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction was climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
, not humans (Vittitow 2006).
Frison believes that the earliest New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
human group that was making stone weaponry capable of killing mammoths, and successful mammoth procurement, was the Clovis culture, and that no earlier cultural group in North America possessed the tools needed to produce lethal wounds on mammoths, extinct species of bison, and other large animals, or to create a viable subsistence strategy based on large animal hunting and procurement
Procurement
Procurement is the acquisition of goods or services. It is favourable that the goods/services are appropriate and that they are procured at the best possible cost to meet the needs of the purchaser in terms of quality and quantity, time, and location...
(Frison 2004).
Frison also believes that the modern counterparts of extinct North American species such as horses, elephants, and camels, are potential and plausible subjects of study and speculation for scientists, and that studies such as the Zimbabwe Clovis experiment on elephants should continue, being necessary part of gaining understanding of behavioral patterns, as well as procurement strategies of past cultures (Frison 2004).
Selected Works=
- Frison, George C. 1962. Wedding of the Waters Cave, 48HO301, A Stratified Site in the Big Horn Basin of Northern Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 7(18):246-265.
- Frison, George C. 1965. Spring Creek Cave, Wyoming. American Antiquity 31(1):81-94.
- Frison, George C. 1968. Leigh Cave, Wyoming, Site 48WA304. The Wyoming Archaeologist 11(3):20-33.
- Frison, George C. 1971. The Buffalo Pound in North-Western Plains Prehistory: Site 48CA302, Wyoming. American Antiquity 36:77-91.
- Frison, George C. 1973. Early Period Marginal Cultural Groups in Northern Wyoming. Plains Anthropologist 18(62):300-312.
- Frison, George C. 1976. The Chronology of Paleo-Indian and Altithermal Period Groups in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. In Cultural Change and Continuity: Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by C. E. Cleland, pp. 147–173. Academic Press, New York.
- Frison, George C. 1978. Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains. Academic Press, New York.
- Frison, George C. 1979. Observations on the use of tools: dulling of working edges on some chipped stone tools in bison butchering. In Lithic use-wear analysis, edited by B. Hayden, pp. 259–269. Academic Press, New York.
- Frison, G. C., and D. C. Grey. 1980. Pryor Stemmed, a Specialized Paleo-Indian Ecological Adaptation. Plains Anthropologist 25(87):27–46.
- Frison, George C. and Dennis J. Stanford, editors. 1982. The Agate Basin Site. Academic Press, New York.
- Frison, G. C., R. L. Andrews, J. M. Adovasio, R. C. Carlisle, and R. Edgar. 1986. A Late Paleoindian Animal Trapping Net from Northern Wyoming. American Antiquity 51(1):352-361.
- Frison, George C. and Lawrence C. Todd. 1987. The Horner Site: The Type Site of the Cody Cultural ComplexCody complexThe Cody complex is a Paleo-Indian culture group first identified at a bison antiquus kill site near Cody, Wyoming in 1951.The tradition is generally attributed to the North American, primarily in the High Plains portion of the American Great Plains. The discovery of the Cody complex broadened the...
. Academic Press, New York.
- Frison, George C. 1988. Paleoindian Subsistence and Settlement During Post-Clovis Times on the Northwestern Plains, the Adjacent Mountain Ranges, and Intermontane Basins. In America Before Columbus: Ice-Age Origins, edited by. R. C. Carlisle. Ethnology Monographs no. 12., University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology.
- Frison, George C. 1989. Experimental Use of Clovis Weaponry and Tools on African Elephants. American Antiquity 54(4):766-784.
- Frison, George C. 1991. Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains (Second Edition). Academic Press, San Diego.
- Frison, George C. 1992. The Foothills-Mountains and the Open Plains: The Dichotomy in Paleoindian Subsistence Strategies Between Two Ecosystems. In Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies, edited by D. J. Stanford and J. S. Day, pp 323–342. Denver Museum of Natural History and University Press of Colorado, Niwot.
- Frison, George C. 1996. The Mill Iron Site. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
- Frison, George C. 1998. Paleoindian Large Mammal Hunters on the Plains of North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95:14576- 14583.
External links=